16 ms·
Why we picture bombs as round black balls with a burning wick (2016)
- Matthias1 5y agoInteresting parallel here to the floppy disk icon being used for "save". It's quite possible that icon is ubiquitous enough that, without a push to change it, it sticks around for 100 years as well.
- webwielder2 5y agoThe floppy disk icon never took off in the Apple ecosystem, so every time I see it in Windows world it seems like a bizarre anachronism. Which it is. Emblematic really of Apple’s ethos of plunging forward and Wintel’s backwards compatibility at all costs approach.
- alisonkisk 5y agoNot really. Apple taught the world the word "skeuomorphic", making fake paper and leather and metal for their apps. Also, Apple famously used the OP's bomb icon whenever Mac OS plunged forward into a crash.
- Macha 5y agoHowever, floppy disk icons also survive in Linux, android and web apps, at least in those which save is an explicit GUI action, so it's really only Apple thats the outlier here
- blondin 5y agoyou are making an interesting point that is shadowed by the extra comment. the floppy disk image as "save" icon is rare in most native mac apps. GP's point is quite interesting because there is a generation or two that hasn't seen a real floppy disk beside on those icons. they probably have no clue what it is. i wonder what other icon images are like that.
- 00N8 5y agothe rounded symbols for 'database' icons are based on some ancient storage medium used in early mainframes - magnetic drum memory I think
- userbinator 5y agoI've always thought of those as more like barrels of data (as opposed to oil).
- CRConrad 5y agoStack of hard disk platters (what's inside a disk drive), I've always thought. Bit more modern than drum (where AIUI the storage surface is the outer circumference, like a phonograph roll); bit less abstract than "a barrel of data". Oracle used to have logos for some products that looked like that (or, come to think of it, like a stack of button-cell batteries): https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvtcholding.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F12%2Fdatabase-icon-47101.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvtcholding.com%2Foracle-database-services%2F&tbnid=sSVaUG-kV2LSsM&vet=12ahUKEwi86s_X4JDzAhWH_yoKHTatBDQQMygRegUIARDVAQ..i&docid=nkxKLZIuMAZ3SM&w=256&h=256&q=oracle%20cylinders&ved=2ahUKEwi86s_X4JDzAhWH_yoKHTatBDQQMygRegUIARDVAQ https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fvtcholdin... And I've always wondered if they based their HQ building on those logos, or if it was the other way around: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F3205%2F3474603423_dfecf4a4f2_z.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fjym%2F3474603423%2F&tbnid=HnLjA81HXmZvUM&vet=12ahUKEwi86s_X4JDzAhWH_yoKHTatBDQQMygCegUIARCzAQ..i&docid=ZDRqBMvED6bLUM&w=640&h=398&itg=1&q=oracle%20cylinders&ved=2ahUKEwi86s_X4JDzAhWH_yoKHTatBDQQMygCegUIARCzAQ https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.stat...
- kitsunesoba 5y agoIt's been a long time since I used classic Mac OS seriously, but I don't think Mac apps really even used toolbars for actions like save, undo, paste, etc. Usually toolbars were for selecting tools (e.g. pencil, eraser, etc in paint) or tuning settings (e.g. font and color), with actions stowed away in menus and lacking iconographic representation. Thinking about it further, this is true of OS X too. Even though it made toolbars more ubiquitous, it was still unusual for "standard" actions to be placed there. I would think that a longtime Mac user probably associates "save" with the key shortcut ⌘-S more strongly than any kind of icon.
- kragen 5y agoThe floppy disk icon was introduced by the Macintosh in 01984.
- webwielder2 5y agoAnd it only ever meant "floppy disk."
- oneeyedpigeon 5y ago> it sticks around for 100 years as well Only if the concept of manual save sticks around that long.
- im3w1l 5y agoEven in systems that continously save your progress there is a close analogue to manual save: Named revisions. Bookmarks of points in history that are better than the surrounding ones - points where some milestone has been reached, and some amount of proofreading done. Where there are no duplicated paragraphs or major rough edges like that.
- codetrotter 5y agoBut the floppy icon would not be a good fit for depicting named revisions
- gumby 5y agoSure, it’s copying your revision to a disk, writing the date on the label, and sticking it in a box.
- jcims 5y agoThe only difference between what is being described here and what we have been working with until today is how far undo/redo go. For the most part the intent is to memorialize a snapshot of the work, a task the floppy icon has been fulfilling all along.
- dylan604 5y agoIf the current document is Untitled, New File, No Name, etc and does not actually point to a file, then the ubiquitous Floppy icon should act as Save As. Once the file does exist, a simple Shift-click of the same floppy icon should also act as Save As. Same thing as Cmd-S/Cmd-Shfit-S. However, I'm unfamiliar with this modifier click save as from any app.
- _Microft 5y ago
- gumby 5y agoWhich itself embodies an archaic remnant: the “floppy” disk icon is most often the 3.5 inch disk (the one with a metal shutter) which was in fact rigid. Actual “floppy” disks (8” and later 5.25”) were flexible and needed a slightly more rigid sleeve to make them easy to handle. The 3.5” ones needed the sleeve to protect the medium (the actual disk).
- sophacles 5y agoThe disk itself was floppy, and basically the same as the larger disks. The case around them was rigid.
- United857 5y agoThe 3.5 inch disks took off around the same time as Windows did (the Mac had always used them) so probably no coincidence that's that the save icon represents.
- moron4hire 5y agoThe actual disk portion on the inside was the floppy part, so it's still a "floppy disk". The rigid part on the outside was called the cassette.
- alisonkisk 5y agoand "cassette tapes" (for computer or radio/stereo/receiver) are the same material, but the magnetic media is in a roll of tape instead of a spinning disk shape.
- moron4hire 5y agoMan, I seriously miss cassettes and cartridges, especially for video games. I recently bought a Nintendo 2DS for my young kids--having missed out on it during its original run myself, and observing that the children grow rather extreme behavioural issues if we let them play on iPads--and even those tiny little cartridges just have something to them. It makes the games feel more real to me, versus downloaded apps just taking up an icon on a screen.
- smegcicle 5y agothere does seem to be some kind of push against it, as if it's either triggering to anyone who hasn't seen one in real life, or maybe the ui designer is afraid someone will think they're old and out-of-touch? the alternative seems to be pictures of folders and clouds with arrows going in and out of them, when the extremely distinctive floppy disk icon unambiguously means whatever form of 'save' is most intuitive and useful
- fencepost 5y agoAre you referring to the vending machine icon?
- wolverine876 5y ago> Interesting parallel here to the floppy disk icon being used for "save". It's quite possible that icon is ubiquitous enough that, without a push to change it, it sticks around for 100 years as well. What icon would you use? it's not an easy question.
- kragen 5y agoFriefox seems to be using an arrow (itself an anachronism in the age of the AK-47, but perhaps the most common ideogram in modern written English) that goes into a tabbed file folder.
- bbarnett 5y agoBugs bunny is why. Seriously. Most popular cartoon of its time, every kid of the era (40s to 70s) watched it...
- danans 5y agoPerhaps an insidious follow on to the cartoon bomb is the unrealistic and desensitizing depiction of it's aftermath: In the cartoons it's just a frowning or dumbfounded character covered in soot instead of the reality of being dismembered.
- macintux 5y agoWhen I read recently about the 15-year-old girl who deliberately targeted and killed a runner on the road, who laughed as he flew over her car, I wondered whether kids have gotten used to seeing people survive collisions like that in the movies.
- danans 5y agoI suspect that person had deeper issues than desensitization. I liken it more to our ability to tune out the effects of drone strikes.
- rsynnott 5y agoBut by the time it was made, bombs hadn’t looked like that for a century; it doesn’t in itself explain the persistence.
- bbarnett 5y agoHmm, I bet newspapers. That seems something which would carry through all that time. The comics in papers, that sort of thing? Then Bugs picked it up...
- amin 5y agoThis Atlas Obscura website seems interesting. As a long time volunteer for Wikipedia, I try to avoid it as much as possible. A hundred people editing one article, with zero editorial oversight, leads to dogshit articles that are not enjoyable to read.
- kragen 5y agoI would say, rather, that a hundred people editing one article amounts to so much editorial oversight that it makes articles not enjoyable to read. You can't put anything someone might disagree with in a Wikipedia article; it puts your edit at risk of being reverted. Still, I enjoy the facts!
- hkon 5y agoToo bad a lot of the links does not work anymore.
- LaMarseillaise 5y agoI was quite sure that this depiction of a bomb was based on 18th century grenades, which were spherical and had a string fuse. The word ‘grenade’ even comes from pomegranate, due to the visual similarity. It seems like this depiction may have originated a little further back than the American Civil War. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenade - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate
- NAG3LT 5y agoWow, somehow never thought that the device is named after the fruit. Their names can be even closer in other languages, f.e. in Russian they are nearly the same word, just different genders.
- jwhitlark 5y agoThen they doubled down with pineapple grenades...
- ficklepickle 5y agoPomegranates are from Granada. In French, Granada is "Grenade" and pomegranate is "pomme grenade", which directly translates to Granada apple
- jcelerier 5y agoas a french I absolutely never heard "pomme grenade" for the fruit, just "grenade" directly
- shados 5y agomay depend where you're from. I'm a French speaker and it's always been "pomme grenade" everywhere I have been.
- Telemakhos 5y agoNo. "Pomegranate" comes from the Latin "pomum granatum," the 'fruit having many seeds.' Granum means grain or seed, and granatus is a pseudo-participial form (like "mentulatus") meaning 'endowed with seeds.' Granada, the city, likely derives its name from Arabic.
- farmerstan 5y agoI think kids today think of bombs like cubes of tnt like Minecraft.
- varjag 5y agoAnd while a few images have rivaled its ubiquity (a bundle of red dynamite tied to a ticking clock, a box labeled TNT) none of those have been visually compelling enough to replace the black sphere.
- wongarsu 5y agoOr wrapped blocks of C4 like in most shooters. Or the tin-can like shape of Russian TM-46 mines that have featured in several viral images
- Stevvo 5y agoI doubt it. Even if a kid loves playing Minecraft and doesn't like watching cartoons, the round black ball symbol is much more ubiquitous, they will often be exposed to it.
- atoav 5y agoBomb emoji
- tetha 5y agoHm. I'd suggest a second advantage of the "ball with fuse" or "stick with fuse" - and from there, the "C4 with unrealistic timer LED" makes a lot of sense: The fuse can act as an agent of suspense, just as Hitchcock described it. It's a very simple indicator - a red dot or a flame, and the length of the fuse is how long to go until an earth-shattering kaboom. And it's obvious what's going to happen to a character if they hold it, so it's easy to create suspense. "Oh no, now the protagonist has the bomb. Oh yes, now the villain has it. Oh no, now the villain tricked the protagonist and put the bomb in their pants!" That is much more interesting from a story telling point of view than a realistic bomb - a bunch of C4 with a mobile phone strapped to it and zero way to understand when it will ruin your day. Unless you include the trigger for those in the story, but then complexity grows.
- theshadowknows 5y agoExtra points for “earth-shattering kaboom” :)
- humanistbot 5y agoHaven't you seen a modern action movie where there is a block of C4 with a big digital timer counting down to 00:00? Seems to be used to the exact same dramatic effect.
- dylan604 5y agoOr a movie where the villian spends half the movie asking "where are my detonators?" If they are using detonators, rarely are there bright red oversized LEDs counters, or the loosely attached, spiraly wound wires just begging someone to ask "blue or red?"
- jackfoxy 5y agoThe article dismisses the stringy fuse because spherical mortar bombs had a hollow wooden fuse, but 18th and early 19th century hand grenades were also spherical and had a stringy fuse.
- anigbrowl 5y agoThere are still products using that form factor and same basic mechanism (burning fuse, initiated by a spring-loaded striker). https://www.defense-technology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Rubber-Ball-Blast-Grenade.pdf https://www.defense-technology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/0...
- beardyw 5y agoMy first job was in an office which got quite regular bomb threats. We would be cleared out and the police would do a sweep. Some of the guys were inspired to make mock-up spherical black bombs as desk ornaments. Next bomb scare the police were very very unamused! Also just remembering one day we were told to go home at 4:30. After some digging we found that the bomb was due to go off at 5:00. Showed a lot of faith in the bomb builders!
- pliny 5y agoWhy was your office getting so many bomb threats?
- beardyw 5y agoHa. A minor government department. Some folks got the idea we were big brother. This was in the 70s. We had one computer between 50 or so developers. It had less than 100k memory, card input, and all tape to tape. Honestly they were deluded.
- pell 5y agoI'd love to hear so much more about how it was to work in this kind of environment back then. (Apart from those bomb threats.)
- beardyw 5y agoOff topic, but to summarise: it was (by today's standards) so so very slow. One overnight compile per developer per day. Programs were on cards which sometimes got dropped or jammed. And much more time thinking than doing.
- infradig 5y agoI used to hand write Cobol programs on coding pads, send them off to data-entry to be typed up and saved to tape. Then I would take the tape to ops, they would run an upload and compile when things were quiet. Get the listing back with errors, then create patches on punch-cards to apply fixes. Talking circa 1977 here.
- hughrr 5y agoInteresting read. I always think of Batman https://youtu.be/9pSD26bGy3I https://youtu.be/9pSD26bGy3I
- 74d-fe6-2c6 5y agoWhat I would like to know is why vibrating devices like razors or dildos are regularly being considered as indicating a bomb. Why would a bomb vibrate prior to exploding?
- evan_ 5y agoCell phone trigger?
- lostlogin 5y agoDoesn’t make much sense that way either, unless the bomb has malfunctioned. If it’s vibrating, surely the bombs going off?
- kortilla 5y agoWell you have to turn it on before it explodes…
- 74d-fe6-2c6 5y agoExplain - how does igniting a bomb require vibration?
- kragen 5y agoMaybe if it used a clockwork timer? But a vibrating dildo doesn't sound very much like a ticking escapement!
- cabalamat 5y agoIt's for the same reason that we "fire" guns or that a motion picture is called a "film": technology changes but the symbols we use to refer to it stay the same.
- mrkramer 5y agoCartoons are one hell of a drug especially for kids. I miss them so much.
- tosser0001 5y agoI picture them that way mostly because of all the games of Stratego I played as a kid. I was surprised not to see it mentioned in the article!
- tus89 5y ago> However, the black, spherical bomb, wick slowly burning away to a boom, has remained the understood image for an explosive. According to who? Citation needed.
- Taniwha 5y agoI want to know where the whole "do I cut the red wire or the blue wire?" trope comes from ..... surely you just pull the detonator out then cut its wires
- js2 5y agoMaybe the movie Juggernaut (1974), but where its writers got the idea, who knows. https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/3957/what-was-the-first-movie-to-introduce-blue-wire-or-red-wire-bomb-disposal https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/3957/what-was-the... https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WireDilemma https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WireDilemma
- Doxin 5y agoThat's somewhat ignoring bombs designed to be difficult to defuse. See the Harvey's resort hotel bombing[0] for an example of where "just removing the detonator" is easier said than done. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombin...
- ryantgtg 5y agoSorta related to round black bombs: I recently watched The Spy Who Loved Me, and realized that this is where I got the idea that grenades aren’t thrown like baseballs; instead, you gotta do a kinda straight-armed huck over your shoulder. Not sure if that grenade throw is grounded in reality, or just a thing that war movies made up.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kragen 5y agoI don't think it matters very much how you throw a grenade as long as you're out of the way of the shrapnel before it goes off. They're set off by timers, not impact.
- Doxin 5y agoIt matters that you throw it far enough away at least ;-) I think the overhand throw may be a leftover from trench warfare, where you'd need to throw the grenade from high enough to clear the trench you're standing in. Though obviously the same sort of tactic would work from behind various sorts of cover.
- kragen 5y agoI could be wrong about this, but I think as little as 100 mm of granite between you and a modern hand grenade would probably keep you from serious injury. I'm pretty sure that with 100 mm of steel in the way, the worst you'd suffer would be ringing in your ears. So "far enough away" doesn't have to be very far.
- Doxin 5y agohand grenades tend to be anti-personel, so I can see them being ineffective against structures. Still, with the amount of videos on youtube with people fumbling training grenades "far enough away" doesn't seem to be a given.
- dylanz 5y agoIt was Spy vs Spy for me